Anyone notice anything weird about the title? No? Just me? OK. Trail of Blood on the Trail (really, though?) is a newish zombie film that’s screened in festivals all over the world and picked up some awards and nominations. Now that it’s available to stream on Lavin Production’s website, here, the producers are hoping to generate more reviews by sending out screeners. They were gracious enough to send one my way and here’s my review having watched it in full.
Trail of Blood on the Trail is written, directed and produced by Kate Lavin with co-writer and co-producer Jeremy Friedrich. The film stars Brett Erickson and Aileeah Colgan with Jeff Bailey, Britt Colgan, Ashika Jayasekera, Eddie Luvan, Anna Nabhan, Drift Roberts, Joe Roderick, Dave Rumer and Kristy Whitman playing the most memorable zombies and victims.
“Brad’s (Erickson) attempt at a romantic marriage proposal at a tunnel of love on an isolated biking trail doesn’t go as planned. As Brad and Ava bicker their way down the bike trail, they are oblivious to the zombie apocalypse that is picking up steam around them. The movie builds into a potent combination of action and humor as Brad and Ava try to fight through the tunnel of love that is swarming with zombies.” – Lavin Production
OK, so, I would love to give this movie a sparkling review, but it has one big flaw that I just can’t get over. The entire feature length film is literally the cycle of couple’s segment, introduce minor character, have minor character eaten by zombies, and repeat. There’s no meat to this film… at all. There’s no story to be found. There’s nothing new or interesting, there’s not even any likable characters to invest your emotions in. The characters with the most potential are relegated to four or five lines before they’re killed off. I just don’t understand why anyone would make a movie like this or how it’s picking up award nominations. Trail of Blood on the Trail could have easily been trimmed down to a 30 minute short film and succeeded in that category, but as a feature it is far too monotonous and repetitive.
And it’s marketed as a horror comedy, but I didn’t find that here. I didn’t chuckle or laugh once. Sure, it has some whit and dry humor to it, but it’s certainly not enough to classify this as a horror comedy. This is just a long zombie movie with no plot.
The only thing… and I mean the ONLY thing… that saves Trail of Blood on the Trail from being a complete disaster is that it will definitely satisfy the gore hounds. This movie has a huge body count. It’s got lots of blood splatters and cool special effects work, so I would like to give that production department a round of applause. I wish some of the death’s hadn’t been partially off screen, but, yeah, if you’re a fan of zombie gore then you’re going to thoroughly enjoy the introduce, kill, zombify, repeat process. While mentioning production departments, I would also like to say that cinematographer, director of photography and cameramen did a really good job, too. Trail of Blood on the Trail is cinematically pleasing to the eye and has a lot of great camera work. Audio is perfect, interesting angles, and decent acting performances…
Unfortunately, I would not recommend this movie to anyone. It’s a modest feature length directorial debut from Kate Lavin but… my god, the script, or lack there of, is just so bad… Final Score: 4.5 out of 10.
